Friday, October 16, 2015

VW emissions scandal - The futility of blaming toxic work culture on the company's leadership

When a scandal of some sort is exposed, I always wait for the subsequent news stories that inevitably say something like,  "toxic work culture" was to blame. The individuals apparently responsible for this toxicity are then named and shamed.

In this vein, here's an article from Fortune blaming the toxic work culture on Ferdinand Piech, VW's former chairman:

The man who created VW's toxic culturestill looms large

But the regularity with which this happens should point to something else. It is not about individuals. It is about the workplace system: that of a dictatorship.

There is simply no point in repeatedly blaming individuals. 


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